The ordinary-sized words are for everyone, but the big ones are especially for children.

Wednesday, 28 November 2012

Nuts and Bolts: Saramaccan

The language Saramaccan is a most wonderful sort of stew.

It's spoken by only about 26,000 people, mostly in Suriname, and one of the gorgeous things about it is the way it's been mixed together: here some Portuguese sloshing gravy-like all over the place, there some bits of English and Dutch bobbing about like potatoes, and over there some herby African languages such as Fongbe and Akan.

The African words may make up a small proportion of the Saramaccan vocabulary, but Saramaccan's African heritage is important all the same, for Saramaccan uses tones (when the meaning of a word depends on whether you say it in a high or low voice, more or less), which European languages mostly don't.

In this glorious casserole of a language there'll be Portuguese-based words popping up, like faka (Portuguese faca) knife, and kendi (quente) hot.

Then there are glimpses of English, too: adantifi, toothpaste, is a charming example; and of the African wordsadjáansi, which means spider, may have a familiar ring to it.